Over Stimulation of the Senses

Japan is a country that enjoys stimulating the senses. For the visual sense there is bright flashing lights, day-glow advertisements, neon restaurant signs that never stop glowing, and storefront windows that display their goods in every color of the rainbow. For the gustatory sense there is an abundant amount of fruit, fish, vegetables, soups, and sweets boasting their own distinctive flavor. For the tactile sense there is an array of everything from soft camel hair sweaters to squishy stuffed animals. For the olfactory sense fish is the most common scent, followed quickly by bean paste, and strawberries, which happen to be Japan's fruit of the month. Each month Japan focuses on a different fruit!! And oh for the auditory sense. If loud noises bother you, or you love peace and quiet, Japan is NOT the country for you. When trucks back up, or turn in Japan, they actually play a song and then talk, saying in Japanese what movement they are doing. Cars advertising radio stations speed down the street with megaphones attached to their roofs, blaring songs and talking. A potato vendor sells potatoes once a week outside of my apartment. He drives around in a car yelling "potato, potato, please buy my potatoes". With the help of his megaphone, his song never fails to wake me up. Store clerks, hired for this sole purpose, stand in front of their stores screaming "irashaimase" which means "welcome". Pachinko Parlors (casinos), blare loud music, and the sound of the slot machines going off as someone wins 1000 yen. However, the place that produces some of the strangest sounds is the train station. Many train stations play the same exact melody continuously. Then as a train is pulling up to the station, a new melody will play over the existing one. Each train station has a different melody for the arrival of the train, some play "Mary had a little lamb", while others play "old MacDonald had a farm". On top of these songs, most trains stations play piercing bird calls from their speakers every few hours. My roommate and I were in a train station in the middle of the countryside once when the train station's song system became jumbled. Instead of the usual two songs and bird calls, there must have been a malfunction because all of a sudden about four songs were playing at the same time at a much higher speed than usual. If I was a newcomer to Japan I would have sworn I was going crazy!! To get away from all this noise you have to hightail it to the country side, where the quietness is so deep you can feel it!! I love Japan, but when I come back to my quiet town in America, I certainly won't miss the over stimulation of the senses!!